No Child Gets Left Behind
by Cancaillerie
Summary: Harry grows up with his uncaring family and when he finally arrives at Hogwarts he doesn't seem to meet everyone's expectations... Rated T for abuse and emotional content
1. Prologue

_July 31__st__ 1987_

A very tired Harry Potter lay in his cupboard counting down the seconds till his 7th birthday. It was a habit that had grown over the years, as he got old enough to decipher how to know the hour. As the bells of the Little Whining's church clang for the 12th time in a row, the little boy sung himself a birthday song. Very quietly that was, so that his aunt - or even worse his uncle - wouldn't hear him. As he closed his eyes he tried to image how his mummy and daddy would sing to him, if they still would have been alive. When tears started to roll down his cheeks the boy fell into a fitful sleep, only to be woken a handful of hours later by the screaming of his aunt and the knocking on the door of the cupboard.

"Boy, get out of there right now, you lazy layabout", his aunt Petunia yelled, " and make sure breakfast is ready when Dudley and Vernon wake up, or else..."

Yes, Harry Potter knew good enough what the "or else..." meant: on a lucky day he would get away without food and a scoff to the head, but most of the time his uncle would find another way to punish him. So, as fast as he could, Harry put his taped glasses on and walked out to the kitchen to start cooking the breakfast he wouldn't eat a piece of himself.

Exactly 15 minutes later a boy, resembling a fat whale with a blond wig, waddled into the kitchen, just as Harry finished putting the food on three plates. The boy started devouring his food right away, while Harry started on the dishes, every once in a while throwing a hungry glance at his cousin. Soon after uncle Vernon joined Dudley at the table and yelled at Harry: "Boy, get me my paper and fast, or else..."

Obediently, Harry did as he was told, before returning to washing the dishes.

After breakfast aunt Petunia gave Harry a list of things that needed to be done that day, knowing good enough Harry wouldn't be able to finish them. Harry took the list and squinted as the letter seemed to dance around the paper. His glasses out of the rubbish bin and the fact that he wasn't allowed to have any books didn't make reading any easier. After a couple of minutes he had sounded out the first task: mowing the lawn. Why that lawn needed mowing so often, he didn't know, but he set to the task anyway. After 3 hours out in the burning sun, with only a few chances to sip a bit of water from the water hose, it was time to prepare lunch.

While his family ate roast beef and tuna sandwiches, Harry was send outside with a chunk of old bread and a cheese crust. Happy to have something to eat, he broke of a piece of the bread, deciding to hide the rest in his pocket for later.

In the afternoon he vacuumed the Dursley's bedrooms, even Dudley's toy room, though that was very hard with all the toys loitering around. After that he cleaned the bathroom and started making dinner. As it was a beautiful summer day, the Dursleys decided they would have a barbeque, so Harry had to make sure the coals got to the right temperature, while cutting the vegetables. Which was not an easy task, considering his head didn't come all the way up to the barbeque set. After half an hour of toiling, it was finally time to put the steaks on, which was right in time as he heard uncle Vernon come home from his work. Right as he was flipping the steaks for the last time, his aunt yelled at him to hurry because his uncle and cousin were very hungry. A minute later he found himself balancing three plates as he was serving his family there meal. The ate, while he was again doing the dishes. As soon as they finished his uncle grabbed the list with his chores and started calling them out, checking if he had done them all. As soon as he noticed that that wasn't the case, he bellowed: " Boy, come here this instant!" As soon as Harry was close enough, he was grabbed by the collar of his too large shirt and without time to jerk away his uncle punched him right against his temple. Not being able to withstand such a blow, Harry dropped to his knees, fighting the urge to sick up on the kitchen floor. The next moment he felt himself lifted from the ground and bit later he was thrown in his cupboard and he heard the latch close. Despite the early hour little Harry, exhausted from a day full of hard labor and pained from the blow to his head, fell fast asleep. His sleep didn't last long though, as he woke up a couple of hours later with a screaming headache and an upset stomach. Now fully sobbing, Harry asked himself what he could have done so wrong to deserve such uncaring relatives. Sure, there must be something wrong with him and this must be punishment for being such a freak.

As many another night that summer, Harry lay awake till the wee hours of the morning, counting down the days till school would start again. Not that he didn't get punished during the school year, but at least he didn't have to do as many chores and he got a few Dursley-free hours a day. It wasn't as if his teachers even liked him, no aunt Petunia didn't waist any time telling him how bad a boy he was and how much of a bully. The teachers didn't believe him when he told them he wasn't allowed to do his homework or that his reading didn't improve because the letters looked all a bit blurry to him and that he wasn't allowed to touch a book at home. He didn't have any friends either, Dudley made sure that all kids staid far away from him. Not that he would have friends otherwise, who would want a friend with rags as clothes and who smelled like he hadn't had a bad in weeks – which was also the case.

Still Harry preferred his days at school over his days at home, at least the teacher only used ruler to tap on his fingers or bum every once in while and he only had to stand in the corner in stead of being locked in a cupboard.

Yes, little Harry had since long given up the hope that his life would ever change, little did he know he was in for the surprise of a lifetime in a couple of years...


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Thanks for all the follows and favorites and the reviews. I really appreciate it, as it is my first story... And I don't have a beta yet, so sorry if there's any bad grammar in here...

And since I forgot to put in a disclaimer last time: obviously I don't own anything Harry Potter related, otherwise I would be lying on my private beach now...

**Chapter 1**

_Halfway July 1991_

Professor McGonagall sat in her office sipping some tea and nibbling at a shortbread cookie, while she was waiting for the self-inking magical quill to finish the next stack of Hogwarts acceptance letters. It was not a very enjoyable task as the quill did all the work and she just had to wait and bring the letters to the owlery. When the last letter of last names with the letter "P" was finished, she stood up and began the trek to the top of the West Tower of Hogwarts castle. Upon arriving there several school owls came to her and to the letters to be delivered all over the country. She never noticed that one letter was strangely addressed to " Harry Potter, Cupboard under the stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging".

Minerva McGonagall sighed as she began walking back to her office; getting those letters ready for delivery was her least favorite duty as deputy headmistress.  
Little did she know that one little boy's acceptance letter was going to cause her much more trouble than she anticipated...

_Meanwhile in the Headmaster's Office_

Albus Dumbledore had been waiting for this moment for a very long time and he could hardly contain his happiness that he only had to wait for a couple more weeks. Harry Potter would finally come to attend Hogwarts. He expected great things from the boy. How else could he, the child had James Potter and Lilly Evans as parents, two very bright and brave wizards, who passed away way too soon.

He still wasn't sure about placing Harry with his aunt and uncle, but the ministry hadn't given him a choice. Wizarding law stated that orphans should be raised by their closest blood relatives and therefor Harry had gone to the Dursleys. And even though he would much rather have raised the boy at Hogwarts, he had had no choice but to consent with minister Millicent Bagnold on the matter.

Though he was sure the blood wards placed on the house would keep the boy safe, he hadn't been able to help himself and had placed an Order member in Harry's vicinity. Arabella Figg had been acquaintance of him for many years by then and he trusted her fully to keep an eye on the boy for him. She had reported often that the Dursleys seemed to behave differently towards there own son than towards Harry, but he hadn't thought anything of it.

So here he sat, at his desk, thinking about the moment when the boy would set foot in the castle. And while he stroked Fawkes feathers and ate another lemon drop, he imagined what the boy would look like: tall, strong and confident like his father and with Lily's green eyes of course.

_The next morning in Little Whinging_

Just like every morning, uncle Vernon told Harry to go get his paper. Well, he didn't actually tell him, he bellowed it at the top of his lungs as he always seemed to do when Harry was nearby. And as usual his command ended with an "or else ..." . So like every morning Harry trudged to the front door, but as soon as he came there, he noticed something different: on top of the paper lay a thick envelope. Well, that was strange, the mail normally didn't come until around noon and there wasn't even a stamp on it. Even though he was intrigued by this strange letter, he obediently took it together with the paper to his uncle, knowing what would happen if he wasn't back quick enough.

When Uncle Vernon took a look at the envelop he almost choked on his morning coffee. The thing was addressed to his nephew, now who could possibly be sending the boy anything, except from those freaks of course.

"Petunia", he yelled a little bit louder than he normally would, " those bloody freaks send him a letter" Aunt Petunia almost fainted when she saw the wax crest on the back and said: "Duddikins dear, please go upstairs for while, mommy will be up in a few minutes. And you", she yelled at Harry, " get out of my sight and start on your chores." Even Dudley knew he didn't have to argue when his parents were acting as strange as that. And just as Harry was about to close the back door, he heard his aunt say: "I've been expecting it for a while now, though I hoped we had beaten that silliness out of that freak." And Harry, as observant as he was, knew he had to get his hands on that letter – whatever the consequences would be- because he knew that letter had something to do with him. After all, he was the only one he knew, who they would be referring to as freak.

He set to his chores fantasizing about who would send him a letter, even though he knew it probably wasn't someone who liked him, because who would like a freak? Maybe it was just a letter from the new school he would be attending next year. He was pretty happy about not going to have to school with Dudley anymore. But why would his aunt react like that if it was just a normal letter, no there was definitely something going on.

He didn't get a chance that day to get a peek at the letter, because uncle Vernon had made sure he had it always on him. Especially since Dudley seemed extremely curious about the letter too and Vernon and Petunia didn't want him to find out what it was about.

As he was locked up in his cupboard for the night, Harry swore to himself he would try harder to get his hands on it tomorrow. For the first time in a long while, he fell asleep without worries about what the next day would bring. He even had a nice dream in which he was flying on a motorcycle, can you imagine?


	3. Chapter 2

AN: Thanks again for all reviews, favorites and follows! Also thanks to inu452isa for pointing out some grammar mistakes, it was very helpful because I still haven't found a beta-reader... Anybody interested?

And above all just for reading this story. It will take a couple more chapters before the major plot line becomes clear and I can't promise that I will post more than 1 chapter a week (or even a chapter a week), because classes have started again and I am not home for a great part of the day...

Oh, and I changed my pen name, so I hope I'm not confusing anybody!

I still don't own Harry Potter (sniff sniff), so don't sue me ;-)

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**Chapter 2:**

_The very next day in Little Whinging_

Harry woke up with a start, realizing it must still be very early, since his aunt or uncle hadn't woken him up yet. So, instead of going back to sleep, he started plotting how he would get to the letter that uncle Vernon kept hidden from him. He thought if he could get breakfast ready really fast, maybe he could sneak out of the room to look for the letter while the Dursley's were still eating.

So as soon as his aunt Petunia knocked on the door of his cupboard and yelled to get his lazy as out of there, Harry went to the kitchen to start frying some bacon and cooking some eggs. He finished just as Dudley came downstairs and started on the dishes right away.

Once they were finished, he got the laundry basket so he could pretend to wander around the house to pick up all his family's dirty clothes. He already threw in the dish towels he had used a few minutes earlier. In the hallway he passed his uncle, so he knew for sure he could snoop around upstairs for a couple of minutes, before anyone would be suspicious of him. That is if they noticed at all that he was gone for longer than normal, they were probably happy enough to have him out of their sight.

He started his search - he liked to think about it as a quest in which he, the brave knight, had to defeat the dragon to free the princess – in uncle Vernon's and Aunt Petunia's bedroom. He looked in the pockets of the clothes they were wearing the day before and in the drawers of their bedside tables. He even looked in their wardrobe and under their bed. But he couldn't find a single sign that the letter had even existed. Disappointed, he moved on to the bathroom and Dudley's rooms, not hoping to find anything there. In Dudley's toy room he even played with a couple of broken tin soldiers, pretending they were on a mission to find a letter too. He was so engrossed in his game that he didn't hear his uncle yelling for him the first to times. Only went he hard stomping on the stairs, he realized he had totally lost track of time. He picked up the laundry basket, which was still quite empty, and ran out of the room. Luckily his uncle had gone back downstairs and hadn't noticed Harry playing with his cousin's toys, or else...

As soon as Harry set food in the kitchen, his uncle told him to stop lazing around the house and get the paper already. Harry did as he was told and going into the hallway his heart leaped in his chest: There lay three letters addressed to him on the doormat, just like the one uncle Vernon didn't want him to see. As fast as he could, he took one and hid it under his shirt. After glancing at the mirror to see if his way-to-big hand-me-down shirt covered the letter completely, which it did, he took the other two letters and the paper into the kitchen. When he handed them to his uncle, the fat man almost choked on his coffee and bellowed: " You would think those bloody freaks got the message when we didn't answer, they can keep on sending those but they should not hope on us giving in to them". Aunt Petunia glared at him and said: "Vernon, stop talking about that kind of people when our sweet Duddykins and the boy can here you! Remember what we talked about last night? We will just stick to our plan and they will give up eventually!" Harry had never heard aunt Petunia get angry at her husband before, so this whole letter business must be really freaking her out to be so on edge.

It didn't take long though before she noticed Harry had not brought the laundry basket down with him and she ordered him to go get it. Harry ran up the stairs, gathered up all the clothes he had missed in his hunt for the letter and almost fell of the stairs running back off. After he had put the laundry in the washing machine, he started with his other chores of the day.

After a really long day full of exhausting chores, Harry was quite antsy and itching to take a look at the letter he was still hiding. It had taken a lot of patience not to take it out all day long, but it really wasn't worth the risk of getting caught before he knew who had written to him and what was in it. Little did he know he was in for one more surprise; because instead of just getting locked into his cupboard like every evening, his uncle dragged him to the kitchen to have a little chat. Now, Harry knew how these little chats mostly went: his uncle would do all the talking and usually it was about something he had supposedly done wrong and what his punishment would be. So Harry stood quietly with slumped shoulders, waiting for the yelling to start. But instead of yelling, his uncle started talking to him in a low and threatening voice: "Listen to me boy, because I'm only going to say this once: from now on you will sleep in Dudley's second room. But if I hear even one sound at night, you will regret the day you were born! Now get your crap out of the cupboard and get out of my sight, or else..."

Harry couldn't believe his ears, he was getting a bedroom all for himself with a real bed in it. Dudley wouldn't be to happy about that when he found out. But Harry really didn't care and he almost skipped into the hallway out of happiness. After gathering his meager belongings from the cupboard, he went to the toy room, no HIS room and a smile crept to his face as he looked around. Of course the room was loitered with broken toys and the bed only had a thin ripped sheet, but he had a hundred times more space than in his cupboard and even a window.

Several minutes later he heard uncle Vernon lock the door from the outside and Harry turned off the lights immediately as not to anger his uncle and ruin the best evening of his life. He was quite sure he would remember this night forever, you don't get a real room everyday! After waiting a bit longer to be sure his uncle wouldn't come back, he perched himself on the window sill so that he would be able to read his letter under the moonlight. He took the letter out and broke the wax seal on the back with trembling fingers. The letter in it seemed to be some kind of really thick paper and the handwriting was really neat and curly. It took Harry more than two hours to read it, because he had to sound all to words out and even then he didn't recognize them all. The letter said something about a school for witches and wizards that he was allowed to go to and he would have to bring all kinds of weird stuff like a cauldron, a wand and t-e-l-e-s-c-o-p-e, whatever that may be.

Sad tears started rolling of Harry's cheeks when he realized that it had to be some mean joke, after all magic wasn't real and you couldn't buy all that weird stuff in any store he knew. His aunt and uncle would probably have a good laugh when the knew that the letter had fooled him in to believing that maybe somebody cared about him. They probably even made those letters themselves and were acting all suspicious to make him curious about it. But he wouldn't give them that pleasure, no he was going to act as if he didn't care about the letters and he certainly didn't want them to find out he had read one of them!

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A/N: I'm not really happy how this chapter turned out, something feels off, but I don't know what... So please review!

Next chapter: Harry has trouble sleeping in his new room and the teachers have a meeting at Hogwarts.


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